Sparrow trap



Jan. 8 1924. 1,479,889

' J. B. BROWN SPARROW TRAP Filed Nov. 17. 1919 2 sneet-sheet x. v

Patented Jan. 8, 1924.

4.unirse armas rimase T0-'HN B. BROWN, CF WAKANUI, ASHBURTON, NENV` ZEALAND.

' sraanow 'rn-ar.

Application ledNovember 17, *1919. Serial No. 338,483..

T all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN BEE BROWN, subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Wakanui, Ashburton, in the Do- 6 minion of New Zealand, have invented a new and useful Improved Sparrow Trap (for which 1 filed an application in New Zealand November 11, 1918, No. 40,942, patented October 2, 1919; Great Britain, No.

10 158,442, filed November 21, 1919, dated under Convention of November 11, 1918; lCanada, No. 199,481, filed November 22, 1919, patented April 27, 1920); and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,

clear, and exact description of the same.

This invention has been devised in order to provide an improved construction of Sparrow trap, the principal feature of which construction provides for the unimpeded ingress of the birds through an opening into a bait chamber and for this opening being then obscured from the birds vision from the inside, while the trap openings from the bait chamber into anadjacent trap chamber proper are in plain view so that the birds will pass into such secondl chamber and` be finally trapped. The construction also is such that the eorts of the birds to escape from the bait chamber will lead them into the trap openings into the second chamber. |The invention consists in constructing the tra of the ordinary wire mesh or netting an with twov chambers, a bait chamber and a bird enclosure, with an inletpassage or passages between them, and in constructing the bait chamber with an end or wall curving concavely on its inside and in which curve an unimpeded inlet is formed, or if desired more than one of such inlets. If desired also, each inlet may have a screen of similar material to the trap arranged to extend across its front at a suitabledistance away to permit of the free passage of the birds into the inlet opening.

The invention may be carried out in a number of ways, the general features of the invention being embodied therein. In the accompanying drawings different constructions of the trap are shewn, the drawings being to a large extent diagrammatic.

In such drawings Figure 1 is a perspective elevation of a complete trap.

Figure 2 is a side elevation, and

Figure 3 a plan thereof.

Figures 4 to 11 are a number of diagrammatic plans illustrative of different ways of arranging the inlets into the bait chamber and the passages from the bait chamber into the enclosure or second chamber.

v Referringv more particularly to the construction shewn in Figures -1 to 3 and generally to the whole of the drawings-A represents the entry or bait chamber, and B `the second chamber or enclosure in which the trapped birds are kept the said chamber having a door orcover b. These are made of any desired relative sizes and are erected on a wire framing supported by a base board C and with their walls and ,tops made of any approved wire mesh or netting of a suitable size mesh to suit the class of birds for which the trap is to be used. Connecting the two chambers A andB arek one or more funnel shaped openingsor passages D tapering inwards into the chamber B and each having a bottom formed by the inclined. plate D. These `openings are. disposed so that their smaller ends are elee vated above the floor of the enclosure a sufficient height. These smallery ends also are made of such a size as just toy permit' of a bird passing freely throughuthem so that a bird passing from the chamber A;

into the chamber B, in its efforts to escape frornthe chamber B, willen-ite overlook these openings. vUsuallythe bird will encircle the outer wallsl and when passing across the divisional wall between the two chambersl will pass either above or .below the funnel shaped passages D. n The outer end wall of the chamber A is made with a shape curving from both side walls, concavely towards the centre line thereof, as viewed from the inside, and in the middle, at the bottom, such end wall is made with an inlet opening a of sufficient size to permit of the free passage of the birds into this chamber from the outside. The base board C is preferably made to extend beyond this front end of the trap to form an alighting platform for the birds attracted by the bait within the chamber A so that they may alight and pass in through the opening a the concave outer shape of the end leadingnaturally into the said opening. The innerconcave shape of the end wall in conjunction with positioning the passages D into the chamber BI at the sides and practically continuous with the walls of the chamber A, as shewn in the several constructions illustrated in the drawings,

Will ensure that upon al bird' entering the chamber A, it willA in its efforts to escape fly round the walls and be directed by the curves thereof into one ofsuch passages D and thus be led to pass through it into the enclosure B. The relatively smallentry opening a, in conjunction with its position between the curves on r each side will escape the birds attention in most cases.

lin' order however that the said entry" `a may be' stilll further obscured or confused from the vision of aI bird within the cham'- ber fir, a Wire work screen E, preferably of smaller mesh than that of which the trap is made, is Xed to extend across the front of the opening a atV a distance away there# from sufficiently great to leave the entry quite unimp'ed'ed. This screen is carried up to; a suitable height and if desired may also bef'extended inward above the opening to'- join the chamber', as shewn in Figure 1. lft is advisable that this screen should be of sufficient length such that when viewed from all angles through the opening a from the inside, the screen will be visually across the opening, as indicated by the diagonal lines in Figure 3 lby which the maximum angles of vision are shewn. The provision of this screen will give an impression of continuity to.` the Walls tol the birds within the chamber A so that the possibility of the presence of the opening being detected by theinI is very remote. y

'in 'the variation shewn in Figure 4 the entry a is divided into two by' a division F' extending out from itvr to the screen E and the' passages Dy are shaped to curve inwards into thechamber B so that more advantage is ohtained from the tendency of the birds to: fly round the walls of the chainb'er'A in theirv efforts to escape from the said chamber.

in the variations shown in Figures 5 to 10 several diderent forms ofl entry are.

iin-'rasee shewn, each one being positioned in curving walls and end, and each being shewn screened from the inside by wire mesh which in some instances, as for i-nstance in the forms shewn in Figures 6, 8 and 10, may be effected by the formation of the entry itself.

linf Figure lll a double trap is shewn, having two bait chambers A oppositely disposed upon the platform C and chambers4 B across both` ends into which the two ends of the respective bait chambers open through passages D. In this construction thee adjacent walls of the two bait chambers are made with a number of concave curves" in their length and with openings a between each curve. The openings of the two` chambers are staggered with one another so: that each opening is opposite a portion of the wall of the other chamber and is therefore screened by such wal-l.

Traps made upon these lines may be formed of any desired size and4 for any classes of birds'.

A Sparrow trap formed by a bait cham-- ber combined with a bird enclosure andl having an inlet passage or passages leading from the bait chamber tothe enclosure,- a curved wall of such bait chamber having a concave inner surface, an inletv opening or openings in such curved wall and' a screen arranged to extend across the outside of such opening or openings and disposed at a suitable distance therefrom, substantially as specified.

In testimony whereof, l have signed this speciiication in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN B. BROWN. i/Vitnesses E. Gonne, J. Rensen. 

